A Good Life
by S'revan
Summary: An attempt at a followup to Crush and Imagined that went its own way and wouldn't come back. HinaItaNaru: Itachi comes home.


I don't know why, but I feel like I should apologize for this. **  
**

**A Good Life**

Itachi returned to Konoha with no hite-ate, no cloak, and simple clothing that didn't belong to any ninja, with Orochimaru's corpse over one shoulder and a pack containing the best scrolls from Orochimaru's library over the other. Behind him came Naruto, still weak but recovered enough to walk, bearing another pack that was rapidly becoming blood-soaked. They went directly to the Hokage's office, unmolested, and after he had seen Naruto admitted to the hospital's care, Itachi presented to Tsunade the corpse, the scrolls, and the other pack, which held severed heads. Some of them had belonged to Sound's elite, others to members of the Akatsuki. All he said was, "I request sanctuary."

Who had the strength to deny it to him?

Itachi and Naruto weren't supposed to be in each other's company, but they were still seen walking side by side often enough, in the days that came, that there was never any doubt that Naruto himself didn't mind Itachi's company. Slowly, the street vendors and passing ninja became used to Itachi's presence and face again, used to the ever-red eyes and slightly gaunt face, used to the bare forehead and long sleeves and closed boots, used to what was essentially a criminally insane psychopath wandering around Konoha's streets in a button-down shirt and jeans, Naruto at his side more often than not, and smiling.

He didn't smile at them, of course, but he smiled at Naruto. Nobody knew why. Only Tsunade had the full story, and she wasn't sharing. Privately Shizune thought that she didn't really understand either.

Of course, every now and then a team that had been gone when Itachi had returned would come back, and have to be filled in again, and dissuaded from attacking, if it seemed like they might be stupid, or suicidal enough to try.

Hinata was one of those who hadn't been there when Itachi came back to Konoha, looking both like a killer and like a civilian. Still, when her mission was complete, and she returned, she didn't do anything other than stop and stare at Itachi (and Naruto too, but she almost didn't see him). She hadn't seen him since she was six, but she knew him.

"Itachi?" she said at last.

He looked at her, and returned quietly, "Hinata."

"You came back."

"I said I would," he said, much to the interest of the passers-by who'd stopped to watch.

Apparently Naruto had a little more sense of place than they did, because it was he who said, "Ahh, maybe here isn't a good idea? I know! Let's go back to my apartment. Hinata, we'll meet you there!"

Hinata looked at him, blushed a little, and nodded. "Yes," she said, and once she had delivered her report, nearly ran to Naruto's apartment, to knock on his door and hopefully be let in.

Naruto opened the door and grinned at her. "Come in, in!" he said, and stepped back so she could. The window, which so conveniently looked out on a tower some ways distant had a ponderous screen in front of it, and once Hinata had entered Naruto closed the door decisively behind her, and locked it.

Hinata barely noticed. She was too busy looking at Itachi, who sat quietly in the corner of the room. He rose, and, after a moment, smiled and held out his hand. She went to him, and at a nudge from Naruto, stumbled into his chest and let him fold his arms around her.

It took them a while to get everything sorted out. Hinata wasn't a six-year-old girl any more, and Itachi wasn't thirteen, and Naruto tried too hard to be selfless, but the devotion each of them had for the other two was not to be messed with, and so they settled into a trio of rejects who didn't want to be anywhere else. After all, as Naruto pointed out once, the village would be damned before it was willing to see either he or Itachi reproduce, and the Hyuuga at least wouldn't let Hinata go, even if they were planning to seal her once Hinabi became the head of the clan.

And as the years passed, Sasuke dwindled into insignificance, and Tsunade stepped down in favor of Naruto, and managed to bully enough elders on her way out that her decisions were met, and he in turn rescued Hinata from her clan just in time, and the three of them finally officially moved in together.

And if some villagers liked to think that Hinata and Naruto were together and keeping Itachi from killing the village, or others liked to pretend that Itachi had come home to finally answer the call of true love and keep the kyuubi contained, or if Kiba somehow got the idea that Itachi and Naruto were a couple, with Hinata to play beard and keep safe from the Hyuuga, well, they could think that if they liked. It was all true, after a fashion, though none of it completely so.

And Naruto would come home and bitch about his job and how much being Hokage sucked, and Itachi would stare at him until he stopped whining and actually ate all his vegetables, and Hinata would fill the silence with news of Neji's son and Kiba's niece and their latest fight over whether Iruka or Shikamaru was the better teacher at the academy. Until Sasuke finally gave up trying to be a loner, and then Itachi would come home and bitch about the nuisance of little brothers with hordes of fan girls, and Hinata would calm him down so he could eat his ramen, and Naruto would reminisce in detail about his genin team so that Itachi would have good stories to get said little brother back at with. And sometimes Hinata would come home ranting about the Hyuuga's latest attempt to cage her and Itachi and Naruto would both be so equally scared and turned on that they never actually got around to dinner.

So despite the fact that none of them really belonged, or were wanted by anyone but themselves, it was a good life.

_finis _

_.: so long as we're together, who cares what they might think :._


End file.
